El Dorado Hills Story

You found it. The best kept secret in Northern California. Where there’s still gold in the hills, at least in the proverbial sense. Read about the area’s history then.

El Dorado Hills, as the name implies, is truly where your riches can be found! Ideally located along Highway 50 between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe and just East of the inland port city of Sacramento, El Dorado Hills combines natural beauty and rural serenity with a strong labor pool and the diversified business services of the Sacramento urban area to create a great place to work, live and play.

El Dorado Hills is land of diversity and opportunity. A productive, fertile and historical land. A land of unparalleled beauty and year round activity. A land growing with the times and offering a progressive business environment. STAKE YOUR CLAIM IN THE LAND OF EL DORADO. WELCOME TO EL DORADO HILLS.

“El Dorado” is the Spanish word for a place rich in gold and opportunity. El Dorado Hills, as its name implies, is truly the place where the riches are found in the heart of California’s gold discovery area and just minutes from where some of California’s most significant historical events occurred.

El Dorado Hills consists of 10,000 very scenic acres in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and overlooks the magnificent Sacramento Valley. Scenic views from Mt. Lassen in the north to Mt. Diablo in the southwest are not uncommon.

Some of the early inhabitants were a group of Indians called the Nisenan, a branch of the Maidu. They were largely a peaceful group of hunter gatherers that thrived on foothill life until the westward movement of the white man brought epidemic diseases to which the Indians had no resistance. Those not killed by disease succumbed to another illness brought by the white man called “Gold Fever”. Many abandoned tribal life, lured by the promise of wealth.

With the discovery of gold in 1848 the area around El Dorado Hills developed rapidly. To the west, Sacramento became the gateway to the gold fields and mining camps. For El Dorado Hills the time was relatively quiet. It was marked by the 1849 construction of the Mormon Tavern as a stage stop. In 1951 the tavern was enlarged to serve as remount station for the Central Overland Pony Express. Today the site is recognized as State Historical Landmark 699. The decline of the Pony Express and the rerouting of the railroads brought the pastoral way of life back to El Dorado Hills.

James Black, in August 1869, acquired a homestead covering what are now the central portions of El Dorado Hills and started a cattle ranch. However, the drought of 1869-71 brought disaster. The property subsequently changed ownership several times, passing from the Blacks to the Joerger family in 1904. In the late 1950’s, El Dorado Hills West, purchased the land and master planed area. Basic roadways and utilities were constructed, a limited number of residential units were developed and an 18-hole executive golf course was built. However, little additional development took place until 1981.

As its name implies --- El Dorado Hills is truly a place rich in opportunity. It is the single best planned community in all of Northern California.

El Dorado Hills is a collection of neighborhoods, each with its own identity and character (from lake view home sites to hillside homes with mountain vistas, to the quiet seclusion of a peaceful meadow setting).

The difference between exceptional planning and chance development is exquisitely evident. In 1981 a group of farsighted investors purchased the remaining undeveloped acreage of El Dorado Hills.

Shortly after assuming ownership, the investors took an active role in the resolution of problems such as water, sewers and utilities. They invited the Urban Land Institute (a panel of outstanding planners, developers and economists) to conduct an analysis of the future possibilities for the orderly development of El Dorado Hills consistent with its size, location and natural resources.

With an appreciation of the potential for a large scale development in such an area and based upon the panel’s analysis, the investors engaged the services of highly qualified experts to design a plan responsive to the ULI findings. The result of that effort, a 3,800 acre specific plan, was approved in 1988. The Specific Plan calls for a predominately residential community integrated with the beauty of the land. The Specific Plan calls for a composition of golf courses, green belts, parks, recreational amenities, community facilities as cohesive development of exceptional quality.

South of El Dorado Hills and along the Highway 50 corridor is the premier office-industrial complex of El Dorado County. Consisting of approximately 880 acres, this fully improved industrial and office park complex provides wide expressways, plentiful water and sewer capacity and natural gas utilities that make the El Dorado Hills Business Park a sound foundation for intelligent business investment.